While US and China face trade wars, 90+ elephants worth $2.7 million are being sold by impoverished Zimbabwe

15 May 2019 : The Zimbabwe President has left no stone ( or animal) unturned in order to raise capital for the financially cankered country. He has been voyaging across the Globe since he came into power in 2018, in search of loans to raise investments in the country.

The poverty stricken country sold upwards of 90 elephants to China and Dubai, each elephants costing between $13,500 to $41, 500. The country made a whopping $2.7 million in the process.

Ironically, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority claims that the money acquired from the sale of wildlife will be used to conserve “wildlife”

According to the spokesperson of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management authority "We are struggling with a ballooning number of elephants. We believe in sustainable utilization of our resources, and these elephants must pay for their upkeep,"

He also commented that the agency was finding it tedious to control the population in its national parks, and that the proceeds from the sales, made over a six-year period, will be used for the upkeep of its remaining elephants. "We have a situation where most of our game parks use borehole water, and that needs a lot of resources. These are some of the costs that we are grappling when there is drought," he added.

Tourism minister Prisca Mupfumira said the country presently has 85,000 elephants and it could only cater for 55,000, according to a local media reports.